BT Sport pundit Jermaine Jenas has raved about the impact of goalscorer Christian Eriksen in Tottenham’s 1-0 win over Inter Milan on Wednesday, saying there is ‘no one better’ than the Dane at keeping composed in the big moments.
Spurs were the better team on the night and deserved the win but struggled to break through a solid Inter defence until Eriksen struck on 80 minutes after some brilliant build-up from Dele Alli and Moussa Sissoko.
Jenas has now pinpointed Eriksen’s impact in the post-match coverage, highlighting how much pressure was on the £75,000-a-week [Spotrac] midfielder when he slotted home for Spurs.
Speaking on BT Sport 3 [21:52], Jenas said: “Sometimes in games like this it’s about patience. They knew they were playing well in the first-half and creating a decent amount of chances.
“You just can’t get desperate in those moments, you’ve just got to believe you can get that one opportunity and when it comes you’ve got to take it, and there’s no one better than Eriksen at the minute at keeping his cool to take those opportunities.”
OPINION
This is big praise from Jenas in claiming there is no one better in the big moments, but you can see where he is coming from. Eriksen is turning into a big game player for Spurs at the moment, and Mauricio Pochettino’s side really struggle when he is not on the pitch. Their performance in the first half was evidence of that, with Spurs playing well in attack but failing to break through a dogged Inter defence. Eriksen was actually relatively quiet in the minutes following his introduction, but his telling contribution came just a couple of moments later as he rifled into the roof of the net to seal an essential three points for Tottenham. The decision from Pochettino to leave him out from the start was questionable, but Eriksen came on to do the damage in the end, and that is all that matters. There is no chance he will start on the bench at the weekend when Tottenham travel to the Emirates to take on Arsenal in a huge north London derby.